Israel ‘eternally grateful’ to Trump for embassy move, declares Netanyahu

“This is a momentous time. President Trump is making history,” declared the Israeli prime minister on the eve of the US’ embassy move to Jerusalem.

By: World Israel News Staff

At a special celebration on Sunday at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the U.S. delegation to the transfer of its embassy to Jerusalem. As part of the proceedings, Netanyahu presented a letter of appreciation to US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman recognizing his role in the embassy move.

The highest praise of the evening, however, was reserved for US President Donald Trump, who announced last December that the US would officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move its embassy there accordingly. In the wake of Trump’s announcement, Guatemala and Paraguay signaled their intentions to move their embassies to Jerusalem as well.

Speaking to the gathering of diplomats, dignitaries, and politicians on Sunday, Netanyahu declared, “President Trump is making history. We are deeply grateful and our people will be eternally grateful for his bold decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the embassy there tomorrow.”

Netanyahu continued, “You are coming at a time when Israel is a rising power in the world, you know, in cyber, in IT, in water, in judo, in singing,” with the latter reference a nod to Israeli Eurovision song contest winner Netta Barzilai, who clinched the international competition on Saturday evening.

“Thank you President Trump for your bold decision, thank you for making the alliance between Israel and the United States stronger than ever,” Netanyahu exclaimed, adding, “It took President Trump to enunciate this simple, basic truth. And once enunciated, that truth will propagate. So I expect — you can call me, all the ambassadors who are here and afterwards, you can whisper in my ear, we’ll fix it. But it will happen.”

Netanyahu did not let the opportunity to confront the Iranian threat elude him, explaining, “With all due respect to those sitting in European capitals, we here in the capitals of the Middle East—in Jerusalem, in Riyadh and elsewhere — we’ve seen the disastrous consequences of the Iran deal. And so when President Trump decides to pull out of this deal, to walk away from it, we know that when he walks away from a bad deal, he’s doing a good thing for our region, for the United States and for the world.”

Benjamin NetanyahuUS embassy move